I do agree, John, that the over-the-top reaction by Barack Obama and the Democrats in response to President Bush’s Knesset speech revealed a super-sensitivity about being labeled weak on national security. But it may simply be an impossible task for them to convince voters that Obama is the superior candidate on this issue. (For example in the Washington Post/ABC poll John McCain leads Obama on foreign policy knowledge 65-24%.)

By dwelling on this topic, Obama is playing on McCain’s side of the field. Polling since May 13 shows a small but significant uptick for McCain in the head-to-head match up against Obama. Is this the impact of Obama’s West Virginia drubbing? Or is it the non-stop focus on national security and the McCain’s team success in working into every news cycle a message about Obama that voters don’t like ( i.e. Obama wants to meet personally, without pre-conditions, with the leaders of rogue states). One wonders if McCain staffers will now routinely refer to their opponent as “Senator Obama, who want to meet unconditionally with Ahmadinejad . . . ” in all their press releases, regardless of the subject matter.

If we’ve learned anything in this primary season it is that polls fluctuate and don’t necessarily match voters’ expressed preferences at the ballot box. We therefore should be wary of small movements in the polls. But I can’t help thinking that McCain would be delighted to spend the next five and a half months arguing about Iran and Hamas. Every day spent doing that not only plays to his strengths, but deprives Obama of the opportunity to talk about health care, housing foreclosures, and the rocky economy.

So the Democrats’ hysteria is not just meshugah–it may be counterproductive. In politics, that’s worse.